ROUND THE STATES

New Delhi, 11 October 2006

Rules For SEZ Projects

CREATING A STATE WITHIN STATE

By Insaf

Several States of the Union which have planned or are planning to set up Special Economic Zones (SEZs) in the private sector are increasingly getting confused over their projects.  They find that the Centre, which is the final authority for clearing the projects, has grown extremely wary following Sonia Gandhi’s warning at the Congress Party’s conclave at Nainital last month against acquiring prime agricultural land for the purpose.  Commerce Minister Kamal Nath, initially champion of the SEZs, has now put the onus of identifying and acquiring lands for the purpose on the State Governments. While issuing the Central guidelines for establishing SEZs, the Commerce Minister has made it clear that no project will be approved without the State Government’s clearance.

The Central guidelines are themselves enmeshed in controversy and have come in for sharp criticism, especially from the trade unions.  These guidelines permit ownership of land to developers without any ceiling and have transferred to the Development Commissioners appointed by the Centre most of the fiscal and executive powers needed to be vested in the States, without defining accountability. Even access to the area under SEZ is prohibited. Although the CPM has permitted West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadev Bhattacharjee to go ahead with his SEZ proposals, some party leaders and the party’s Trade Union, CITU, have alleged that the present guidelines will lead to the formation of a State within a State. The CITU is concerned that some of the guidelines go beyond the concept of a minimum regulated fiscal regime and do not prohibit a maximum limit for land procurement by the private sector.

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Hooda Backs Reliance SEZ

Haryana’s Bhupinder Singh Hooda is the first among the Congress Chief Ministers to publicly announce his decision to go ahead with the SEZ project to be set up by the Reliance Industries in Jhajjar district. Describing the criticism by some Opposition leaders, as a “misinformation campaign”, Hooda has made it clear that 75 per cent of the land required for the project would be purchased by its developer at the market rate and the remaining would be acquired by the State Government, for which a compensation at the rate of Rs.23 lakh per acre would be paid. He has promised that the interests of the farmers would be fully protected.  It has also been assured that the housing project would be limited to 25 per cent of the SEZs area and the builders’ lobby will not be allowed to prevail.

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Governor Stops Mulayam’s Move

The Chief Minister of U.P., Mulayam Singh Yadav is desperately trying to retain power after the Assembly poll early next year. His latest move now is to somehow keep his alliance going with the Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) of Ajit Singh who is scouting around for possible alternatives. He tried last week to induct into his Ministry two RLD “non-legislator” nominees, taking advantage of Article 164(1) of the Constitution which provides that “Ministers shall be appointed by the Governor on the advice of the Chief Minister…”. Governor T.V. Rajeswar however refused to swear them on the basis of Clause 4 of the same Article, that “a Minister who for any period of six consecutive months is not a member of the legislature of the State shall at the expiration of the period cease to be a Minister.” Since the Assembly polls are three-four months away, the Governor used the provision against appointing the two as Ministers and going against the spirit of the Constitution.

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Battle for Belgaon Is On Again

The battle for Belgaon between Maharashtra and Karnataka has been revived once more. The five-decades-old “seema ladai”, which has both linguistic and territorial dimensions, started in 1956 when the States were reorganized on a linguistic basis.  Belgaon and 865 of the 1278 villages in the district went to the Mysore State which became Karnataka in 1972.  But Maharashtra and Marathi-speaking population in Belgaon continued to pressurize the Centre to include Belgaon and all its villages comprising an area of about 7,770 sq. km on the plea that a majority of the people in the area spoke Marathi. In fact, in Belgaon, the Maharashtra Ekikaran Samiti (MES) has not only been organizing agitations from time to time, but also flying the flag of unification with Maharashtra all these decades. This is despite the recommendation against the transfer by a Commission set up by the Centre under former Chief Justice of India, Mehr Chand Mahajan, to look into their demand.

The latest border confrontation was triggered by a PIL filed by the MES in the Supreme Court. Initially, the Centre submitted an affidavit to the Court calling Maharashtra’s case “not maintainable and time-barred”.  This affidavit was later withdrawn and reportedly replaced, obviously under pressure of the Congress-NCP Government in Maharashtra, to state that the matter should first be resolved by the concerned States. To make matters worse, the JD(S)-BJP Government in Karnataka, led by H.D. Kumaraswamy, declared Belgaon as the State’s “City No.2” and held for the first time an Assembly session in Belgaon from September 25 to 29.  The legislature passed a Resolution yet again demanding implementation of the Mahajan report, which has yet to be fully implemented. While the political battle is on, the educated people want only development of the districts.

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BJP Formula To Choose Poll Nominees

The final selection of the BJP’s nominee for the Lok Sabha byelection from Vidisha in Madhya Pradesh, marks the beginning of “decentralization” of the party’s functioning, especially in regard to the choice of party candidates for various polls. Despite open support of the party’s top leaders, A.B. Vajpayee, L.K. Advani and M.M Joshi, for Varun Gandhi, the party finally chose the State’s Health Minister Ram Pal Singh, Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chauhan’s confidant. At the Election Committee meeting Chauhan and other State party leaders made a pitch for Ram Pal, while the Central leaders supported 27-year-old Varun.  The State leaders prevailed on the plea that “local sentiments” must be respected. They also made the point that rebel Uma Bharti needed to be denied any scope to upset the BJP’s effort to retain the seat, vacated by Chauhan after he became the Chief Minister.

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Communal Violence In Mangalore

Mangalore, the beautiful coastal city of Karnataka was rocked by communal violence for five days, starting on Thursday last week. Trouble started when Bajrang Dal activists allegedly protested against the transportation of cattle to abattoirs in open or half-open carriages. The situation turned violent after the mini-truck was involved in two accidents, injuring the cattle.  The bloody violence has taken a political turn and the Janata Dal (S) Supremo, Deve Gowda has asked his son Chief Minister Kumaraswamy to consider breaking up the nine-month-old JD(S)-BJP alliance. The alliance is believed to be responsible for the saffron groups like the Bajrang Dal and the RSS creating communal troubles. In fact, Deve Gowda had written a long six-page letter to the Central leaders a few weeks ago to put the RSS outfits on leash. He is upset that his plea has been ignored. This may ultimately lead to a political change in Karnataka.

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Politically volatile Goa is preparing for a coalition surgery once more. The Congress-led Government, headed by Pratapsinh Rane has reportedly convinced the party High Command in New Delhi about the need to remove a rebellious minor ally, Maharashtra Gomantak Party (MGP) from the Government without hurting another ally, the NCP.  The State Congress, led by Ravi Naik, has taken such a step despite the fact that the Government is surviving on a razor-thin margin. But they want the party’s lone legislator and the PWD Minister Sudin Dhavlikar to be dropped from the Rane Cabinet for working against the interests of the Congress in the State. They feel that the Rane Government will survive without the support of the MGP MLA. The ball is now in the Congress President’s court.---INFA

(Copyright, India News and Feature Alliance)